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using the bad wrap templates

S

sign painter

New Member
hey all, my question is hard to explaine. but trying my first wrap on my own truck, and using the template have designed the wrap, measured the vehicle, and now cant figure out how to size the design for print. do you turn off the template layer then flatten, then save as tiff to send to versa works for up scaling then tile rip and print? i opened the template in photoshop raw meaning didnt scale at all. was this wrong? sorry but not understanding this. lol im sure its something simple im missing. tried to find some threads on this but no luck, maybe i didnt go back far enuf. thank you in advance. got to give all you wrappers credit its not as easy as it sounds, if it were every one would be doing it! oh and the template is from the bad wrap forgot to tell that.
 
S

sign painter

New Member
um i think its 1/10 so in theory i should increase 1000 percent but when i do that its wicked far off cuz it has the extra space in the canvas where the template was, does that make sense, im not sure how to explain it. lol
 
S

sign painter

New Member
thank you for pointing me in the right direction, however the only files i have in the bad wrap is the pdf and it only tells me that they are in 1/10 scale. i bought this on a drive from a local sign shop that unfortunately was going out of business due to illness and have contacted him and he no longer has the computer he used. maybe i can get ahold of sai and they can email me som directions, once again thank you.
 
SignBurst PCs

SignBurst PCs

New Member
I demo The Bad Wrap templates at many of the tradeshows for SAi. It really is a pice of cake. In short:

1. Drag and drop any background or logo images into the green layer group (design). You can move the layers around, just be sure that they stay inside the green layer group. You can also manipluate any othe elements in the green group using Photoshop tehcniques, again, just be sure that they stay in the green group.

2. After you have your design down, you can hide the "template group" (red, I think) and your full print design should be visible without the vehicle now.

3. At this point you can simply save the design as a flattened tiff and send it to your RIP to cut up and print (over simplified). Yes, you will need to print it at 1000% as it is at 1/10th scale.

TIP: Before hiding the tempalte group, I like to cut up the pieces in Photoshop so that I have the benefit of choosing where my seems go. For example, I use the selection tool and select a rectangle area around the drivers door (leaving a couple inches around the door so that I have enough print to work with while installing. After making my selection, I turn off the design layer and use Ctrl-Shift-C to merge all the layers in my selection and copy them to the clipboard. From there I create a new file (the clipboard's dimensions should be automatic) and paste my selection. Now I have a flattened file for my driver side door to send to my RIP. I like to save the individual files in case I need them for printing later (installation mistakes or if the driver has an accident and I need to replace a specific area of the wrap). This TIP isn't exclusive to these templates and can work with any Photoshop files that it might be relevant to.

P.S. Please let me know if you have any questions that I might be able to help you with regarding the templates. While I am not employed by SAi, I do have a pretty good idea of how they work.
 
SignBurst PCs

SignBurst PCs

New Member
VinylLabs.com said:
you can print at 1000%?? if I print at 72dpi I see visible loss in quality!
Click to expand...

Yes, you can print at 1000% in The Bad Wrap templates. 72ppi can be very clear (in large images such as vehicle wraps) as long as you are using high resolution images (or properly sized vector) in your Photoshop design work. Larger wraps (bus or trailer) can be resonably clear at 50ppi (or even less). If you are seeing major loss of quality in your print, then I would GUESS that you have something a little off in your design process.

I have printed wrap designs at 73, 150, and 300 and set them side by side to see the difference. Yes, there is a SMALL difference, but I noticed it in small text (1/4" or less). If you are printing text that small, you might want to reconsider your design anyhow.
 
TheSnowman

TheSnowman

New Member
PDF templates in bad wrap? All of mine are photoshop files. Not sure why you have pdf's. The only PDF's I have are the ones that have measurements in them and scribbles from the dealership when they took all the pics.
 
S

sign painter

New Member
thank you casey, the info was very helpfull! also whats the best way to get in contact with you? would like to purchase a new comp to do my designing in, been using same one for my sign program and all my sign work, but seems slow with photoshop, would like a dedicated machine for wraps, thanks for your time, luke
 
SignManiac

SignManiac

New Member
So I thought I'd give their templates a try and downloaded a single file for my truck. All the files are .tiffs and I didn't see any vector outlines to use for clipping? Do they not include any outlines?
 
TheSnowman

TheSnowman

New Member
If I remember right they were outlined years ago. I bought the original like 8 years ago or so it seems like. I've since turned that hard drive into a time machine backup for my Mac because I wasn't ever using it for the templates, so I'm not 100% sure.
 
SignBurst PCs

SignBurst PCs

New Member
SignManiac said:
So I thought I'd give their templates a try and downloaded a single file for my truck. All the files are .tiffs and I didn't see any vector outlines to use for clipping? Do they not include any outlines?
Click to expand...

The Bad Wrap templates are layered tiffs that are designed to be used in Photoshop. They are raster templates (no vector that I know of). If you use the "groups" correctly, it should automatically mask the design for you.

I did list a few basic instructions in a post above (from 2011).
 
AceSignsOnline

AceSignsOnline

New Member
I've found the Bad Wrap templates a breeze to work with. Do your design in the groups already specified and labeled in the template, hide the masked layer, flatten, convert to CMYK, open in Flexi, RIP at 1000% after proper paneling (specifying where you want your seams.
 
SignManiac

SignManiac

New Member
Thanks anyway. I'm messing around with it trying to create a vector outline with the masking tools. I can always go back to tracing it freehand and build it that way.
 
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